FAA Investigation of Fuel Fed Fires

The FAA has been investigating fuel systems after the Flight for Life AS-350 crash last year, where the fuel-fed fire contributed to the pilot’s death and seriously injured the flight nurse. The results show that fuel systems that abide by 1994 federal standards, could eliminate injuries caused by fires in survivable accidents.

The problem is that manufacturers were allowed to continue producing helicopters with out-dated fuel systems, as they only had to have updated fuel systems certified after 1994. This means that helicopters that are in use today could have been certified prior to 1994. The FAA is now looking into the costs for the helicopter industry if they had to implement the 1994 rule on new helicopters, reports 9News.